Neal takes on a covert identity to get up close and personal with a corrupt politician, gathering evidence of his shady dealings.
Tropes:
- Bait-and-Switch: Neal looks shocked at a document saying “Peter, how could you keep this from me?” and Diana comments “I'm sorry, boss. He needed to know.” Both Peter and the viewers assume that Diana has told Neal that Peter is looking into the music box. However, she has only shown Neal a photo of Peter with a mustache.
- Dirty Harriet: Jennings's campaign manager gets photos of Diana at Peter's house late at night and assumes the two of them are sleeping together. Neal, in his fixer persona, identifies her as a prostitute so that she can infiltrate the elite escort ring that funds Jennings.
- Embarrassing Old Photo: The episode ends with Neal and the other agents laughing over a photo of Peter with a mustache.
- Good Cop/Bad Cop: Neal has named one of his cons as a reference to this: “Bad Cop, Good Criminal.” He proposes that he and Peter run this on Jennings:Neal: It's a variation on a con that I've... Thought about running before. The bad guy, the cop, that's you, creates a problem for Jennings, and the good guy...
Peter: That's you?
Neal: Right. I provide the solution. - The Infiltration: Neal infiltrates Jenning’s inner cycle to get access to his second book with evidence of his scam.
- Plausible Deniability: Mozzie has Peter bring a magazine to the warehouse when they need to get $10,000 in a hurry. This is so Peter can distract himself by reading it and not see the details of how Mozzie gets the money.
- Survivor's Guilt:
- Neal tells Diana that he feels like he should have died on the plane instead of Kate. Diana comforts him and tells him that Kate wouldn’t have wanted him to blame himself.
- Diana herself used to blame herself for Charlie’s death, her bodyguard who died protecting her. But she tells Neal that she doesn’t blame herself anymore because she knows it’s not what Sam would have wanted.
- Will Not Tell a Lie: Downplayed. Neal certainly keeps many secrets from Peter, chooses his words very carefully to withhold certain things and lets Peter draw preferred conclusions. However, he promises Peter that he has never actually lied to him.
